Lesley Models New Undergrad Tuition Strategy to Fight Sticker Shock

Since the bottom dropped out of our economy in the fall of 2008, family income has declined and, five years later, shows few signs of recovering. Nearly all net income gain over this time has gone to the top 1%-2% in the country. Unemployment, underemployment and anxiety about job stability continue to trouble millions of American families. University presidents rightfully argue that a college edu...

A Partner from Healthcare Speaks to Higher Ed

More from the NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Summit on Cost of Higher Education ... The more NEBHE and others focus on the "cost disease" in higher education and new business models to treat it, the more similarities with another sector arise. Like higher ed, healthcare is marked by always-rising costs and prices, complicated subsidies, varying quality, stubborn inequity, and hidden ine...

To the Summit: NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Convene Higher Ed Leaders to Talk Costs, Biz Models

NEBHE and the Davis Educational Foundation convened more than 200 higher education leaders this past weekend in Boston for a frank conversation about costs and the higher ed business model. The Summit on Cost in Higher Education aimed to begin a conversation on innovative practices, collaborations and cutting-edge strategies to address the “cost disease” in higher education. Continued er...

The Emergence of Three Distinct Worldviews Among American College Students

American college students’ worldviews affect what they value, the way they behave and potentially how they learn. We have found that today’s students are divided not dichotomously, between religious and secular, but rather among three distinct worldviews: religious, secular and spiritual. Institutions of higher education need to understand the distinctions among these three worldviews and desi...

Exploring Higher Education Business Models (If Such a Thing Exists)

The global economic recession has caused students, parents and policymakers to reevaluate personal and societal investments in higher education—and has prompted the realization that traditional higher ed “business models” may be unsustainable. Jay A. Halfond of Boston University and Peter Stokes of Northeastern University recently conducted a non-scientific "pulse" survey of presidents at...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Author Richard Arum on Undergrad Learning

In April, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. The first installment of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing Carnegie Foundation Presiden...

No. 9 … No. 9 … No. 9 (Rebels, Rabbis and Stories on Innovation from BIF-9)

I was at Providence’s Trinity Rep last week covering the Business Innovation Factory's (BIF's) summit of innovators—BIF’s ninth, my fourth. The lineup of speakers—“storytellers” in BIF parlance—included puppeteers, rebels at work, an innovative rabbi, educators and assorted other visionaries. The audience: about 400 self-assessed innovators, some with job titles like Chief Sorceres...

On International Higher Ed, a (Granite) State Department

New Hampshire has emerged as a leader in international education. Recognizing the value in offering the opportunity for an American-style higher education in other parts of the world, the New Hampshire Legislature has acted favorably on legislation that my colleagues and I have sponsored to help create universities in Greece, Italy and Jordan. Degree-granting authority for the three universities ...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider on Liberal Education

In April, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. The first installment of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing Carnegie Foundation President ...

Credit for What You Know, Not How Long You Sit

Zach Sherman earned an associate degree from us in just under 100 days. He did in about three months what many students struggle to do in two years in full-time degree programs. Zach works the graveyard shift at a ConAgra food plant in Troy, Ohio, and he was in many ways an exceptional case: unencumbered with family responsibilities, willing to put in several hours a day, a voracious reader posses...